When you see a termite in your house, you don’t just step on it and assume you’ve solved the problem.

When you see allegations of blatant sexual harassment spanning over years and questions about financial mismanagement in state government, you don’t assume the problem is isolated to one agency.

Gov. Kim Reynolds has ordered two independent investigations of the Iowa Finance Authority. On March 24, she fired the executive director, Dave Jamison, citing “credible allegations” of sexual harassment against several anonymous victims.

Five weeks later, after media inquiries led to the release of written allegations by one of the alleged victims, Reynolds ordered an independent review of how the state’s sexual harassment policies have been applied by the Iowa Finance Authority.

On Monday, she told reporters she will also order a third-party auditor to review IFA, in light of questions first reported by the Des Moines Register about a lack of internal budget controls and oversight.

Jamison has not spoken publicly about his dismissal or the allegations of misconduct.

The serious nature of multiple complaints means Reynolds should not confine the inquiry to one state entity:

Jamison allegedly committed sexual harassment over a period of years and was occasionally witnessed by agency managers who apparently did not report it and whose jobs may have been threatened.

The Register has reported that the governor and executive council were left in the dark about a third-party review that showed IFA could repair its current office building for far less than the $17 million cost to relocate. The governor has said the IFA relocation will go forward anyway.

A former IFA employee alleges that another employee’s personal Paypal account was used to collect thousands of dollars in agency fees over several years.

The new IFA director acknowledges that budget authority given to Jamison by the IFA board was interpreted so broadly that multiple employees were allowed to spend tens of thousands of dollars on the organization’s behalf without board approval.

The financial oversight issues may well be unique to the Finance Authority. IFA is not a state agency like the Department of Transportation or the Department of Public Safety. Like the Iowa Lottery, it is self-supporting and does not receive taxpayer dollars, an arrangement that is central to its mission. A board of directors is responsible for oversight, so this “quasi-governmental entity” does not have the same regulatory requirements as a normal state agency.

But there’s a common thread that runs through all of these complaints and allegations and that’s what Reynolds must root out and banish: a fear of retaliation by state employees who speak up about wrongdoing.

The anonymous IFA employee who complained about sexual harassment wrote in her letter to the governor: “I think (Department of Administrative Services) will just cover for (Jamison) and I’ll end up without a job.”

The letter also alleged that Jamison told a high-level employee who reprimanded him about inappropriate remarks: “You must be allergic to a paycheck.”

The letter writer added: “I understood this to be a threat of retaliation.”

In an exclusive interview with the Register, Deb Flannery, a former IFA employee, said she was fired in 2016 for no documented reason after she raised concerns about financial practices at the agency.

It was actual retaliation, not just fear, that was at the root of the $1.75 million lawsuit settlement that taxpayers had to cover in Kirsten Anderson’s sexual harassment case against the Senate Republican caucus. Anderson was fired in 2013, seven hours after she presented a list of complaints to her supervisor about sexual harassment and a toxic work environment.

Former Iowa Senate communications director Kirsten Anderson speaks to the crowd outside Iowa State Sen. Majority Leader Bill Dix's home during a protest Saturday in Shell Rock.(Photo: Matthew Putney, Waterloo Courier / Special to the Register)

This isn't just about sexual harassment or one bad apple at a relatively small, semi-independent agency. This is about a climate of fear in state government.

Reynolds and lawmakers must expand their investigation beyond IFA to ensure all state employees can report problems and concerns without the threat of losing their jobs. Officials should view the situation at IFA as the first sighting of a termite that could signal far greater rot within the core of state government.